1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for receiving a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable terminals are being widely used as necessary articles of modern life style regardless of age and gender. Service providers and terminal manufacturers are developing a wide variety of products and services for differentiation and competitive edge.
Today, a portable terminal has evolved into a multimedia device to provide various services such as a phone book, a game, a Short Message Service (SMS), an Electronic (E)-mails, a morning call, a Motion Picture Expert Group Audio Layer-3 (MP3) player, a schedule managing function, a digital camera, and a wireless Internet service.
Also, the portable terminal readily provides a navigation function for receiving a GPS signal and connecting to a traffic information center through a mobile communication network to provide updated traffic news or route information to a user.
In order to use the navigation function, the portable terminal must receive a GPS signal through a GPS module to detect its own position. The portable terminal employing a GPS module may be called as a GPS receiver.
A method of detecting the position of the portable terminal varies according to the GPS mode used by the portable terminal.
If the portable terminal uses a stand-alone GPS mode, the portable terminal receives a GPS signal to determine the initial position. This process takes a long time in detecting the position of the portable terminal.
If the portable terminal uses an assisted GPS mode, the portable terminal receives position information about a base station (BS) from a position information providing server and then can quickly detect the position of the portable terminal corresponding to the received position information.
However, the portable terminal using an assisted GPS mode may be unable to communicate with the position information providing server due to poor network conditions.
If the portable terminal is unable to communicate with the position information providing server, the position information provided by the position information providing server may be lost. As a result, the portable terminal may fail to receive information used to detect the position of the portable terminal.
To address above drawbacks, there is a need for an improved way of detecting the initial position information that is used to detect the position of the portable terminal.